Union city worker returns missing dog tag to WWII vet

City of Union employee Wayne Hardy was collecting bottles and other scrap from an area being cleared in May when a dog tag, partially blackened from age and the elements, caught his eye.

By Lynne Shacklefordlynne.shackleford@shj.com

City of Union employee Wayne Hardy was collecting bottles and other scrap from an area being cleared in May when a dog tag, partially blackened from age and the elements, caught his eye.Hardy picked up the dog tag, stamped with the name “Leo Henderson Jr.” and the serial number still visible and he set out to find the owner, although he knew the World War II tags would likely belong to the family member of a now deceased veteran. Hardy and others had been clearing the area that was a city dump years ago.“It's a miracle that we found the dog tag,” Hardy said. “They've been burning brush day and night here and we've mostly found some old bottles, they say some are 70 years old and to find this ... it was amazing.”After months of searching for the owner, the heavy equipment operator of 10 years and Public Services Director Perry Harmon located Henderson and his wife, Norma, who still live in Union, after finding a relative's obituary during a Google search.Henderson, 86, lives on West Main Street in Union and said he's long thought about the dog tags. He was assigned two tags during Army training in the early 1940s and was delighted when Harmon and Hardy delivered them to him Friday.Henderson, who received a Purple Heart after being shot by a sniper in Germany, said he returned from the Army in 1945 and then moved away from home when he was 21 or 22 years old. He suspects he mother unknowingly discarded the dog tags while she was cleaning years ago and it ended up in the landfill.“I got those tags when I was 18 years old,” Henderson said, who can still recite the serial number on the tag. It's been 57 years since he last saw them.“That's what amazed me,” Hardy said. “He was saying the numbers before we got in the door.”The dog tag is now safely stored alongside the Purple Heart.Henderson was in the 69th Infantry Division and fought for three years in Germany.

Norma Henderson said her husband wouldn't talk about the war for years, but has been sharing memories lately.“Every once in a while, he would say, ‘I wonder whatever happened to my dog tags,'” Norma said.Henderson said memories of the war come rushing back periodically, and he associates his dog tags with the battles.“They were a part of me,” Henderson said. “They hung right here and I wore them for three straight years. ... I'm glad to get them back.”Harmon and Hardy said they were grateful to return the dog tag to its rightful owner, and Harmon joked that Hardy would likely be searching for the other one next week.“(Norma Henderson) has promised me a chocolate pound cake,” Hardy said. “If I find the other one, I might get a whole meal.”Hardy said he doesn't think the Hendersons would've been any happier if they had won the lottery.“To be able to put them back in his hands, that was something,” Hardy said. “We were amazed that after all these years had passed, that we found it and it was in such good shape.”